A food blog of original, kitchen tested recipes with easy to follow instructions.

Eat!

Eating is a necessity. However, we choose what to eat. The choices we make reveal a great deal about us. The food you eat can tell quite a bit about your heritage, your family, your fears, your sense of adventure, your attitude toward yourself and others, and a myriad of other personal tidbits to anyone paying attention. Everything about eating is a glimpse into your soul.

I hope to reveal a little bit about myself to you through my food. I enjoy cooking. I enjoy eating. I find pleasure in bringing pleasure to others. I hope that by sharing my recipes I bring you a little bit of joy.

Cook my food. Feed it to the people you love.

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Because of this blog,
my husband eats many of my experiments- some good, some great and some just
gawd-awful. Every so often, I like to make something easy, comforting and
familiar for dinner. I figure that if I want him to keep eating my research,
sometimes dinner will just be about him.

He loves Country
Fried Steak. Most people use cubed beef, but he likes cubed pork. Pork is more
tender. Either will work for this recipe. For him, the gravy is a necessity. I
think you will agree. You can add carnalized onions to the gravy if you want,
but otherwise keep this simple. This is not extravagant, hard to pronounce,
weird ingredient food. This is down-home, grandma, country food.

Cut the steaks into serving sized pieces. Generously salt
and pepper both sides. Cover one of the plates in paper towels. Set aside.

Whisk the eggs and milk together in one dish. Mix the flour,
cornstarch, garlic powder, onion powder, Cayenne, salt and pepper together in
the other dish.

Add enough oil to the skillet to make it about an inch deep.
Heat over medium.

Dip each steak into the flour mixture and shake as much from
it as possible. Then dip it into the eggs and then back into the flour. When
you put it in the flour the second time press down and make sure that the steak
is covered. When you are breading always go-dry, wet, dry. Put the breaded
steaks onto the clean plate.

When the oil is sizzling, fry the steaks without them touching.
Fry on each side for about 4-5 minutes or until golden brown. Don’t crowd, you
may need to cook in batches. Always use tongs to flip meat. Remove the finished
steaks to the paper towel covered plate. You can keep the steaks warm in the
oven on the lowest setting.

To make the gravy, make sure that the same skillet has 1/3 cup
oil. If there isn’t enough add some butter. When the oil is hot, slowly add the
flour. Keep whisking until the flour is a paste the color of peanut butter.
Scrape the leftover, crunchy bits of the steak from the bottom and sides of the
pan. Add a generous amount of salt and pepper. Add the buttermilk slowly, whisking the whole
time. Slowly add the stock. The secret to gravy is to never stop stirring. Add
the coffee. If the gravy is too thick add more stock, if it is too thin keep
cooking.

Remove the gravy from the heat. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper.

Serve with mashed potatoes or rice. Top the side and the
meat with gravy.

Saturday, March 4, 2017

When I make fish, I
usually start by saying that I am not a fish fan. I take all of that back. I
was looking over the fish at the market recently and the butcher suggested
cobia. He told me that it was firm enough to hold up to any cooking method. If
I could do it to chicken, I could do it to cobia. I trust my butcher, so I
bought some.

I went home and
looked cobia up. Sometimes called black salmon or black king fish, cobia is
very nutritious and highly sustainable. It is being farmed in a new kind of
open ocean aquaculture. Cobia is new to American consumers, but I predict it
will be wildly popular.

If you cannot find
cobia, you can substitute salmon or tuna. However, cobia is much milder and
firmer than either of these. I served it over orzo pilaf with a side of wilted spinach and a side salad. From the beginning to end, the whole meal took 25
minutes to prepare.

Servings: 4-6

Time:Cook time 15 minutes; active time: 10 Fish in about: 20 minutes

Hardware:measuring
spoons and cups, a knife, paper towels, a plate, a zester, a large, heavy
bottomed skillet (I prefer cast iron), a metal spatula (I used a fish spatula),
a wooden spoon, a slotted spoon, and a a gravy boat

Ingredients:

1 pound of 1 ¼ inch thick cobia

Salt

Enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the skillet

3 tablespoons butter

2 cloves garlic

1 cup low sodium chicken broth

2 teaspoons capers with the juice

2 teaspoons lemon zest

Large pinch of saffron

Dice the garlic as small as possible. Zest the lemon. Measure
everything and set aside.

Cut the fish into serving sizes.Rinse in clean water and pat dry. Generously
salt both sides of the fish. Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in the skillet on high. When the pan is very hot, place the fish
pieces in the skillet without crowding them. The idea is to sear the outside. If you crowd them, they will not sear, but
will steam instead. If needed, cook in batches.

Allow the fish to cook for 4 minutes.Turn carefully with the spatula and cook for 4 minutes on the other side or until the fish is opaque and flakes easily.
Be careful to not overcook Set aside. You can keep the fish warm warm in the oven on the lowest setting.

Wipe out the skillet. Turn down to medium
high. Add the butter and garlic and stir until the butter melts. Add the
broth and capers. Allow the sauce to
boil for about 5 minutes or until it begins to reduce. Remove from the heat. Taste and adjust the salt. Add
the saffron and lemon zest to the hot reduction, right before serving.

To plate, place a starch (pasta, rice or mashed potatoes)
on the plate. Top with a piece of fish. Use the slotted spoon to scoop out some
capers, saffron and zest. Top each piece of fish with the caper mixture. Splash
a little of the reduction on the cobia. Pour the rest of the reduction into the
gravy boat and offer it to your guests.

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About Me

I am a teacher living in Florida. I love teaching and I also love to cook. This blog combines those two loves. My recipes are very detailed because I am not making any assumptions about my readers' cooking experience. I want my blog to encourage even new cooks to be brave in the kitchen.